Deep Obsidian
by mediahybrid117
Summary: "It's been months since the accident. What are you gonna do now?" the voice asked her as she stood on top of Mt. Pyre in front of one of the graves. "Just because he's not around, doesn't mean he's gone..." she took a deep breath and wiped her eye as a Duskull watched her curiously New Pokemon. New trainers. New region. Blood, swears, the usual. Read, review and as always... Enjoy!


**Okay, so, if anyone is curious as to who the heck Clarence is, he's the main male protagonist of X-Y. His real name is apparently Calem. I just named him Clarence because that what he looked like to me. I tend to do that if I don't know a main character's name. Anyway… on to the story!**

"It's been about a month since the incident." A voice said over the phone. "How have things been?" he asked.

May stood on top of Mt. Pyre and held a bouquet of flowers, staring at the yellow flowers sadly, "Not the same." She said. "Everyone says he's a hero. Yet… no one can ever thank him for saving the region." She set the flowers by a gravestone. A Duskull hovered near her and watched her curiously.

"Because he's not around anymore?" the voice asked.

"I miss him." She said, "We used to be best friends."

"Don't say 'used to', he'll always be your best friend, even _if_ he's not around."

She sighed, "Clarence…"

"What? I'm just saying." He laughed, "I still call him my best friend."

She managed a smile.

"So how's that Fletchling and Snivy I sent him?" he asked.

"Fully evolved." She said, "He loves them and they love him."

"I see, I see." Clarence said, nodding on the other line. "So where do you think he is? If anyone hardly ever sees him enough to properly thank him for saving Hoenn and nearly losing his life for it."

May looked up to the sky. "I don't know." She said, "He travels a lot. Maybe he's hanging out at his base? Maybe in the sky with Latias? Who knows? He could even be travelling to an entirely different region for all we know."

"Maybe he'll finally pay a visit here in Kalos." Clarence suggested. "You know, meeting your best friend in person's always a good idea."

"You two have never physically met?"

Clarence chuckled, "Nope. But we have so much in common, but we were both trying to get a hold of a couple friends in other regions but our lines got crossed."

May nodded and stood up. "Well, I'm gonna go track him down. See if I can't keep him still long enough for the region to throw a party for him." She smiled, "I'll bug him to calling you, okay?"

"Please do." Clarence said. "Talk to you later."

May nodded and hung up the phone. She looked back down at the gravestone, "I'll be back tomorrow, Grandmother." She said before taking off on Swellow. "Come on, girl, let's go check his base real quick." She said. Swellow cooed and flew toward Fortree. May watched the ground below, in awe with how beautiful everything was from above. She couldn't imagine what Brendan always saw when he was out flying with Latias, considering he always went out over the sea. Swellow shrieked and caught May's attention, alerting her that they were where they were at their destination. May hopped off of Swellow's back and returned her into the pokeball. She moved some leaves aside on a bush and stepped into the small entrance. "Brendan?" she called.

There was a low growling in the dark chamber composed of leaves and sticks. May stepped back upon seeing glowing red eyes in the darkness. The growling grew louder as the eyes drew closer, revealing itself to be a Mightyena with her ears pointed back. Upon seeing May, her ears pointed forward again and her tail wagged.

May smiled and knelt by the Guard-Pokémon. "Good girl." She scratched her ears, "Is Brendan here?"

The Mightyena paused for a moment and tilted her head. Then she nudged her hand to make her keep petting.

May sighed and scratched the side of her neck, "Bark if you know where he is."

The Mightyena in turn let out a loud bark.

May nodded, "Okay… let me know if he's at any of the locations I list off." She said, earning a confused whimper from Mightyena. "Littleroot? Ever Grande? Mauville? Sky Pillar?"

Each time Mightyena had been silent.

"Um… Safari Zone, Battle Institute, um…" she thought for a while. "Flying with Latias?"

Mightyena just laid down, assuming that this conversation was going to be a while.

May sighed and thought harder, trying to figure out where Brendan would go if he were careful with his still-healing wound. Then she paused, _if_ he was careful. "He's on the Cycling Road south of Mauville, isn't he?"

Mightyena barked loudly.

"Of course he is." May stood up, wishing she'd thought of that option earlier. "Well, I'm gonna track him down and talk to him." She said and walked off.

At the main part of the Cycling Road, were several ramps, allowing the facility to double as a skate park. A figure wearing a blue helmet painted like Kyogre rode his bike up a steep ramp and flipped backwards. Upon landing, he balanced on just the front wheel and hopped to balance on the back wheel.

May approached the back of the crowd that surrounded him and sighed, seeing the stunts he was doing. "Good grief… Hey, Kyogre Boy!" she shouted.

The stuntman went back to two wheels and looked in May's direction. He turned his bike the other way and hopped onto a rail about as wide as his tires, and began riding along the rail. The rail curved and ended up passing May, so he ended up jumping off the rail and landing on the back tire.

"Show off." May smirked. "Come on, I need to talk to you." She said and led off of the Cycling Road.

Before they knew it, they were both walking along route 110 towards Slateport, from the north exit of the Road.

"You know, Clarence hasn't heard from you." May said.

Brendan nodded, his Kyogre helmet hung from the handlebars of his bike. "He never calls me."

"That's not true. He calls you all the time. And we call you. _You_ never answer your phone." May said.

He remained silent, knowing he was in trouble. "Why answer?" he finally asked.

"What?"

"Why answer my phone?" he said, his tone had changed. "All I ever end up hearing is 'thank you for saving Hoenn' or 'how's your stomach?' or maybe even 'can we see Kyogre?' it gets annoying after a while."

"Well, people are grateful and even worry about you." She said.

"Yeah, but maybe a call that doesn't concern Kyogre would be nice." He said somewhat bitterly.

May was silent for a while. "Is that why you went into hiding? Stopped answering your phone?" she asked. "To escape all that?" her tone hardened, "Clarence went through the same thing doing exactly what you were doing. He never tried escaping everyone. His behavior never changed."

"True." Brendan nodded, "But I'm not Clarence." He looked ahead, "So we're in Slateport why?" he asked, finally realizing where he was.

"Someone wants to talk to you." May said.

Brendan stopped in his tracks and looked at May, "Who?" he asked with a skeptical look.

"A friend." She said simply and kept walking. She finally found herself at the entrance to an aquarium that had been opened up recently.

"Wait- isn't this that Absolute-Aquarium that I keep seeing ads for?" Brendan asked, folding his bike and tucking it into his bag.

"Yep." May nodded and pulled Brendan inside.

"And isn't this place owned by Archie?" he asked.

May approached the counter, "Is Archie in?" she asked.

The window attendant nodded, "Yeah, he's in the back."

Brendan let out an exasperated sigh. "Why are we going to see Archie?"

May followed the attendant to a back room that was attached to a small pool. The taller, darker man faced the pool and was commanding a water Pokémon to jump. What Pokémon it was, however, was a mystery until they actually saw it. "Hi, Archie!" May sang out.

Archie turned around, and instead of his blue Team Aqua uniform he used to wear, he now wore a black wetsuit with blue stripes. "May!" he cheered, "How's it going?" he then looked over, "Brendan! Holy sh*t, you got him out of his hiding place, did you?" he hugged Brendan tightly, "How's your-" he glanced over at May who was waving her hand over her throat, "Swampert?" he asked, quickly covering up 'stomach'.

Brendan gave him a dull look, "Ford's fine." He said, relieved that even though he meant to ask about the injury, he asked about his Pokémon instead. "What's in here?" he walked up to the edge of the pool and peered in, finding a Luvdisc and a larger Pokémon that appeared to be its evolution, Alomomola. "Trying to get them to jump through hoops or something?" Brendan asked.

"No, those hoops are for trapeze. I have a couple Panpour and Simipour that help out." Archie explained.

"Got it."

"Um… Archie, you wanted to talk to Brendan about something?" May asked.

Archie looked at her, "Hmm?" he looked back at Brendan as though he discovered something, "Oh right!" he exclaimed, "You see Brendan, since the… accident… I stopped trying to pursue the whole 'Restart the World' thing and decided maybe give something to the public instead. Something they'll enjoy."

"Quite the leaf we've turned, huh?" Brendan straightened up and looked back at Archie.

"Yeah." Archie smiled, "Anyway, that's why I started this aquarium. And if any of the recent Aqua members wanted to still work for me, they can."

"That explains why the window guy looked familiar." Brendan glanced over at May, who was now playing with the Luvdisc in the pool.

"Anyway." Archie's tone hardened from being interrupted one too many times, "I'm still collecting to add to this aquarium. There is a region that I have nothing from yet." He said, "And I'm far too busy to leave this place to go out and collect some." He smiled, "You mind?"

"You want me to go out, to a _whole_ other region, just to get you a few water-types? Isn't that smuggling _and_ illegal?" Brendan asked.

"Not if you're a tourist." Archie said. He waved his hand, "Besides, kid. If you're so irritated by the attention you're getting here because of Kyogre, then maybe going to a region where nobody knows you would do some good. Try it. Trust me."

Brendan sighed, "Fine. When do I leave?"

"There's a ship outside of the Battle Resort that leaves to the International Marina tomorrow. If you take it at 2 p.m. and then the ship leaving to the Lidae region, you should be there within the next… two or three days?" Archie said.

"Alright." Brendan nodded. "I'll go get packed and ready then…" he turned around and left.

May jumped up to follow him, but by the time she had gone outside, he was nowhere to be found, "Brendan?" she called. She then sighed and sent out her Swellow.

Brendan hopped off of Latias' back and stepped into the secret base that May had found before. He sighed and returned the Mightyena sleeping inside and packed everything. "I guess I'll set up camp someplace else, huh?" he asked himself. After settling into a base on route 123, with stairs leading to an upper-level where a bed was found, Brendan sat on the bed and thought to a long while. He reached into his pocket and retrieved a small hand-held device. After flipping it on, he laid back and scrolled through the list on the device, hearing several Pokémon cries emit from the tiny speaker on the right side. Treeko, Grovyle, Sceptile, Torchic… and so on. He'd realized something. Save for eleven Pokémon, he had every Pokémon that belonged in the Hoenn region. Five of them he'd seen. He stared at the screen sleepily for a while, his eyes drooping sleepily before he dropped the Pokédex on his chest and snored silently. Mightyena approached him carefully and nudged a Pokéball that was attached to his belt, allowing Glinda, his Gardevoir to stand before them. She shook her head before looking at Brendan. Smiling sweetly and raising an eyebrow. She took the Pokédex and switched it off, setting it onto the brick that sat beside Brendan's bed. She then waved her arms, lifting Brendan's body while Mightyena moved the blanket aside. Glinda then laid Brendan in the bed properly and pulled off his shoes and took off his hat, setting his shoes beside the bed and the hat on top of the Cyndaquil doll's head. She then removed his belt containing his Pokémon, setting it on the brick along with the Pokédex. She finally pulled the blanket over Brendan and tucked him in. she managed a small smile to Mightyena. Mightyena looked up at her and wagged her tail. Glinda sat down beside Brendan and thought a while, sensing something off. She looked around for a while and sighed, placing a hand on her Pokéball and returning herself.

The following morning, Brendan found himself at the PTM. He stood in front of the machine and swiped his Trainer Card, then entered his pin number. After withdrawing a good handful of money, he then went over to the Pokémon Center, going to the PC inside. He swiped his card again and set the six pokeballs inside the groves. After selecting six Pokémon, the pokeballs flashed and he logged off the PC. "On to the Battle Resort." He mumbled to himself pointing forward.

"Brendan!" May shouted, "I've been looking everywhere for you!" she ran and grabbed his arm.

"May, I was actually going to call you." He turned around.

She flinched. Him? Calling someone? "Why?

"I was gonna ask if you wanted to come with." He said.

"T-to the Lidae region?" she asked in surprise.

"Yeah. I can pay for the both of us to go on that boat." He said.

May stammered, "Uh-" she took a deep breath and smiled sadly. "Take Clarence." She said.

"Clarence?" Brendan asked, "Why? Don't you want to see what's outside of Hoenn?"

"I do. I really do. But I need to stay here and help my dad with his research. We're still trying to fill out this Pokédex, and-"

"Here..." He shoved his Pokédex in her hands.

"But, Brendan- this is yours!" she switched it on, "And…"

"Almost done." He said. "There's eleven Pokémon missing from that. Three of those I can get for you, the other seven should be easier if you have the patience to breed Pokémon and raise a Bagon or Vigoroth." He said, "And I heard that there's a little old lady in Lavaridge who's holding a Wynaut egg and can't hatch it."

May looked at Brendan bewildered. "You- I…"

He hugged her. "You've got this." He smiled.

She smiled, "Thank you…" she backed away and looked at it for a minute. Then tried shoving it back into his hands, "But I can't accept it. It's yours." She said. "You've worked too hard on this to just give it away like that."

"May, you're one of the hardest working people I know. And… frankly, as far as raising Pokémon goes, I think you've worked too hard and turned up not enough proof. Give this to your dad. I may have gotten it that far along, but at least you'll be the one to finish it." He smiled. "I'm giving it to you because you deserve a little break."

She sighed and held the Pokédex close to her. "Thank you, Brendan." She smiled. "Now go. You're gonna be late." She playfully pushed his shoulder.

"Alright." He pulled out the black, anchor-shaped whistle given to him by Steven.

"And you better call. We worry about you." She said.

Brendan smiled and played the whistle, summoning Latias and flying off on her back. After they'd gotten a good distance from May, Brendan dialed Clarence.

"Brendan? About time you called back." Clarence's voice said on the other end.

"Yeah- hey, what're you up to?"

"Um…" Clarence's voice trailed off, "Just got back from a funeral, actually."

Brendan's brows furrowed, "Whose?"

Clarence was silent for a while. "You remember Derek White? From the Unova region?"

Brendan's body grew cold, "What happened?" he asked.

"Spencer Grey called me yesterday and told me that Derek had passed. I guess he was really sick and just… never got better…"

Brendan sighed, "Man… I'm sorry." He said, "I totally get the feeling. When I was living back in Johto, my friend Ethan died too. He was sick too." He sighed again, "I'm sorry."

"Yeah…" Clarence sighed sadly, "Anyway, you called. What's up?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

"Oh! I'm being sent to a new region to catch some water types, but I'm probably gonna explore a bit too, wanna come with?"

"What about May? Wouldn't _she_ want to go?"

"I tried bringing her along, but she's got duties of her own here at home. She suggested to bring you along instead."

Clarence chuckled, "Yeah, I talked to her before you called, actually. She's such a sweet girl." He said, a smile rang in his voice, "Where are we meeting up?" he asked.

Brendan smirked, "Meet me at the International Marina. I'll have a Latias with me." He pat the side of Latias' neck, earning a purr from the feminine Dragon.


End file.
